Peter Shurman

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Peter Shurman
MPP for Thornhill
Incumbent
Assumed office  October 30, 2007
Preceded by	Mario Racco
Born	1947 Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Occupation	broadcaster

Peter Shurman (born 1947 in Montreal) is a Progressive Conservative Member for Thornhill in the Ontario Legislature. Prior to his election, he was a radio talk show host on CFRB in Toronto.

Professional life

After 22 years in the radio broadcasting business, Shurman became CEO and principal shareholder in 1991 of Universal TeleResponse Corporation (UTR), a call centre in North Toronto. Born in Montreal in 1947, Shurman attended Sir George Williams University and apprenticed in communications with Standard Broadcasting, holding various positions with the company's Montreal AM and FM stations, CJAD and CJFM. Originally hired as a technical maintenance man, his career ranged from program announcing to reporting, to sales and management culminating in his being appointed Radio Division President at 36.

Shurman left Standard Broadcasting in 1987. His activities immediately thereafter included buying 14 radio stations for a total of $22.5 million in less than one year for third parties; undertaking an assignment to grow a minor Toronto paging company, into one of the area's largest and most important operators in only eighteen months; applying for an FM radio licence in Toronto in 1990. When the licence was not granted, he purchased an ailing telephone answering service, The Receptionists Ltd., and re-named it Universal TeleResponse Corporation. UTR became a multi-million dollar enterprise handling 7x24 communications for FP/Fortune 500 companies.

In 2003, Shurman sold UTR and remained for one year as part of the sale agreement before returning to his first love, broadcasting. He was a talk radio host for CFRB until announcing his intention to run in the 2007 Ontario provincial election.

Personal life

Shurman is married and lives in midtown Toronto with his wife, Carole. They have two adult sons, neither living in Ontario. They have been married since 1971.^[1]

Political career

In 2007, Shurman successfully campaigned as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Ontario general election, 2007 becoming the MPP for the riding of Thornhill. His election provided focus for the issue surrounding public funding of faith-based schools, a major issue in Thornhill which has a large Jewish (35%) population. However, absent that issue, it is believed that vote rebalancing in traditionally Conservative areas, would have given Shurman the election in any case.

Towards the end of 2008, York University (a university that is close to Shurman's political riding) was effectively shut down due to a call for a strike from CUPE 3903. Shurman was the first and only politician to vocally express the need to initiate back-to-work legislation that would allow students to return to class. After an institutional hiatus that crossed the 11 week mark, the Premier of Ontario recalled the Ontario Legislature to pass back-to-work legislation. Shurman is credited with applying the pressure required to elicit that response.

With the resignation of John Tory as the Leader of the PC party Peter Shurman was mentioned in the media as a possible candidate in the leadership election to choose a successor. Shurman decided to stay out of the race as he felt being leader would be a ten-year commitment that he was unprepared to make. He is supporting Frank Klees' leadership campaign.

References

• Shurman's Campaign Website
• The Peter Shurman Show on CFRB
• Shurman's profile on the Toronto Star website